Education News: August 25, 2006

Following are some of the top headlines from the world of education for the week ending August 25, 2006.

Bush Administration Opposes Integration Plans
(Source: Los Angeles Times, 08/25/06) The Supreme Court is set to hear a case about voluntary racial quotas in public secondary schools in Kentucky and Seattle. Commentators expect the conservative court, with new members Alito and Roberts, to rule against racial quotas, their rationale being that quotas are discrimination even if they are meant to be altruistic. While the court recently ruled in favor of affirmative action in the famous University of Michigan case, opponents insist that higher education exists in a different domain than primary and secondary school. Currently, roughly 1,000 school districts use racial quotas.

Evolution Major Vanishes From Approved Federal List
(Source: The New York Times, 08/24/06) Federal education grants go to low income students studying federally approved subjects. They consist of $4,000 grants going to students in their third and fourth years of school. Evolutionary biology was recently dropped from the list in a painfully obvious manner, as its spot remains blank on the listing of approved majors. Spokeswoman Katherine McLane from the Department of Education denies that the omission was purposeful. Another spokesperson has assured the public that the major will be returned to the list soon.

Ex Schools Chief Hornsby Indicted
(Source: The Baltimore Sun, 08/23/06) Prince George’s ex county schools chief Andre Hornsby has come under intense scrutiny in an investigation of him awarding contracts to receive kickbacks and then covering up the evidence. Hornsby is reputed to have given lucrative contracts to two companies. One of them was the company of his former live-in girlfriend. In a deal with that company, called LeapFrog School House, Hornsby’s girlfriend received a $20,000 kickback, which she split with Hornsby. News of underhand deals surfaced when the relationship between Hornsby and his girlfriend was exposed in public.

Bloomberg Unveils Plan to Encourage City’s Students to Take the PSAT
(Source: The New York Times, 08/22/06) Mayor Bloomberg has announced that New York City will pay the College Board $1.2 million a year to allow as many interested city students (sophomores and juniors) to take it as possible. If all potential test takers end up taking the exam, the city will bargain at a rate below the standard one. If low numbers take the test, however, New York stands to lose money. Bloomberg attributes this new policy to the fact that the PSAT is used by colleges to recruit students. Getting students into the college-mind frame is helpful as well. Those who oppose the decision worry that students who get low scores will be discouraged from applying to college.

NCLB Seen as Ineffective, Poll Suggests
(Source: Education Week, 08/22/06) In the 38th Annual Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup poll, roughly seventy percent of respondents polled gave a neutral or negative review of the No Child Left Behind poll. While the amount of adults familiar with the act increases with each year, people surveyed voice concern over the effectiveness of the testing. The act, which mandates regular testing and monitoring of school progress, measures student scores in math and reading, but soon science will be added to the list. Seventy-one percent of people polled said that they wanted to see the existing school system improved rather than see an overhaul of the system.

Ranks of Male Teachers, Principals Shrinking
(Source: The Arizona Republic, 08/21/06) In Arizona grade schools, ninety percent of teachers are women and roughly sixty percent of principals are women. Numbers continue to weigh in favor of women, making men an increasingly scarce part of the education equation. Male teachers play an important role in convincing young people that education is a worthy pursuit for boys, so some people are concerned about the decreasing amount of men in elementary education. The Arizona Republic attributes this trend to diminutive teacher salaries, the female desire to be nurturing, and to the fear that students will accuse male teachers of behaving inappropriately.

In Elite N. Y. Schools, a Dip in Blacks and Hispanics
(Source: The New York Times, 08/21/06) The Bronx High School, the Stuyvesant School, and Brooklyn Technical High School have seen large drops in the percentage of minority students they have admitted over the past decade. The schools have long adhered to a program that admits students solely on the basis of a city-wide test. Additionally, the state has implemented a program to train minority students over the course of several years. Schools chancellor Joel Klein has promised to expand the Specialized High School Institute—a sixteen-month test prep program that starts the summer after sixth grade. New York City also hopes to open more specialized schools to serve a larger number of students at some point in the future.